the Goidelic world, rejoicing in the translucent expanse of the heavens as his crystal bower.
A somewhat similar localizing of mythic personages is observable in connection with the ancient stone strongholds of the west. One of the most remarkable stands in the island of Arann, off the coast of Galway: it is not known when or by whom its cyclopean walls were built, but it is called Dun Aengus, after an Aengus son of Umór,[1] a father otherwise obscure. Now we read of a lady called Maistiu, daughter to this Aengus, acting as embroideress to the other Aengus;[2] and it is by no means improbable that the Dagda's Son of the one set of stories was Umór's Son of the other, whence it would follow that Aengus's daughter who embroidered for him might be regarded as corresponding to Zeus's daughter Athene, who excelled in the same kind of work. The story of Aengus, son of Umór, associates him with a mythic people called the Fir Bolg, and brings him and the Clann Umóir[3] from Scotland; they obtained land in Meath from the king of Erinn, but finding his yoke too heavy, they escaped to the west, when Aengus and his household settled in Arann. The meaning of this myth will readily be seen by comparing it with its Welsh counterpart, to which we are now coming. But before dismissing the Mac Óc, it may be worth while mentioning
- ↑ O'Curry's Manners, &c., ij. 122, iij. 5, 74, 122; and there appears to have been a tale, now unknown, about the Destruction of Dún Oengusa (in modern Irish Dún Aonghuis), the Fortress of Aengus: see M. d'A. de Jubainville's Essai d'un Catalogue, p. 244.
- ↑ Bk. of Lecan, fol. 233a, b, quoted by O'Curry, iij. 122.
- ↑ Some more references to Aengus and the other sons of Umór will be found in O'Donovan's note to the Four Masters, A.D. 1599 (p. 2104), and O'Curry's Battle of Magh Leana, p. 157.
